Picture this: You moved to the United States when you were a teenager. You are not a citizen, but you served your country. You were wounded in combat and returned home to rebuild yourself. You settled down, got married and found a good job. You are in the process of becoming a citizen. You go to the Department of veterans Things for a routine checkup: maybe new glasses, a hearing test, the usual. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is waiting, ready to remove him from the nation he calls home, where he raised a family and risked his life for.
This is not fiction. It’s becoming a reality at the VA. The administration has already begun deporting veterans, and even military spouses directly from US basesAnd just when you think they couldn’t sink any lower, the agency is now ordering offices to report any noncitizen employee or any noncitizen affiliated with the VA, including veterans.
A memo issued late last month, written by VA Chief of Staff Christopher Syrek and ordered by VA Secretary. Dave Collinsdirects all VA offices nationwide to compile a list of all non-citizen “employees, contractors, health care professionals in training, and volunteers” by December 30. The list will then be provided to the VA Office of Operations, Safety and Readiness and sent upstream. “Anyone who is not authorized to be in the US,” a VA spokesperson said the military outlet Stars and Stripes, “will be treated accordingly.”
In Donald Trump’s Washington, “treating accordingly” with respect to noncitizens generally means only one thing: ICE.
The Guardian indeed reported that the VA is creating a database of noncitizens, and the VA confirms to the outlet that it will share data with other agencies, in part for immigration enforcement purposes. In a statement to rolling stonePress Secretary Pete Kasperowicz denied that the VA is creating a “database,” but noted that the department “is required by federal law to continually screen all employees and affiliates, such as unpaid researchers and others who may have access to VA data or systems, to ensure they comply with federal government requirements.” reliable workforce standards”, which is why the directive was issued to exclude non-citizens.
For a department already facing a huge shortage of doctors and nursesThis is another self-destructive policy disguised as national security. The VA says identifying noncitizens is a routine “ongoing investigation.” But the federal “reliable workforce” program does not require listing by citizenship status. Nor does it mention immigration status at all. This is not workforce modernization. This is a raid aimed at capturing non-citizens who have some connection to the VA.
Worse yet, many of the people whose names will end up on that list are veterans. More than 100,000 military veterans lack citizenship. Thousands more are legal permanent residents. The VA employs about 450,000 people, more than a quarter of whom are veterans. according to the Pew Research Center. This does not include the thousands of contractors and other affiliated workers who will also be subject to the new VA memo, many of whom are also likely veterans.
These men and women fought in Iraq, Afghanistan, Panama, Vietnam and elsewhere in conflicts dating back decades. No need to imagine how the second Trump administration treats them. Just look at the log.
ICE has been kidnapping and detaining veterans since Trump returned to office. Julio Torres, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, was detained by ICE at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport earlier this year after returning home from visiting family in Mexico. ICE too tried to deport Army veteran José Barco, Purple Heart recipient, injured in an improvised explosive device explosion, after serving his sentence for a crime based on untreated trauma (Venezuela refused to accept it). Veteran Sae Joon Park, 61, lived in the United States since childhood, but was forced to self-deport this year after ICE threatened to detain him. Three months ago in Georgia, a non-citizen veteran named Godfrey Wade was pulled over during a traffic stop for failing to use his flashing lights. His family still has no idea how he is doing. “He was not born in this country, and yet he loves this country so much that he signed up to serve it,” her fiancé said. he told a local CBS affiliate. “Fifty years later, when he needs this country, this country turns its back.”
Now imagine that ICE receives a freshly printed, VA-verified list of all green card holders, asylum seekers, and nonresident veterans and legal residents affiliated with the department. Every foreign resident doctor, every immigrant nurse, every non-citizen researcher treating PTSD, cancer, and traumatic brain injuries. The immigrant who is grateful for the opportunity to come to the United States and who humbly works in the kitchen of a veterans hospital. Imagine the chain effect: widespread fear, resignations, vacant positions, delayed appointments, worse care.
As our public institutions seem to become more fascist by the day, any veteran or non-veteran proudly shouts “I voted for this!” They should ask themselves a question: Who will defend me when it is my turn?
